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Soccer Coach's Corner

Soccer Tip

Presented by John Fletcher, Camp Director
Nike Soccer Camp at Eckerd College

Soccer Tip: Get in Game Shape

Game shape

Soccer requires you to be able to run for ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes. Often players experience dehydration, cramps, and fatigue throughout the course of a game. Nike Soccer Camps presents three ways one can become game ready and run the course of an entire game.

Cooper Test:

The Cooper test is a common test every soccer player experiences at some point in their life. It is a two-mile run that must be completed under twelve minutes. In some cases, coaches require this test to be completed under eleven minutes and thirty seconds. This test is a great way to show your endurance. If you can complete this test you are ready to play a full game. In this test, you experience dehydration, cramps, and all the discomfort you may feel when getting tired in a game. It is the perfect way to dictate whether you can play a full game or not.

Beep Test:

The Beep Test is a mental and physical challenge. This test requires just two cones separated twenty yards apart. The test has no true end. It is measured by you running until you can’t any longer. Allowing you to push yourself to your absolute limits. The test starts with you positioned at one cone and when it beeps you must make it to the other side before it beeps again. After about a minute the test speed increases and the beeps are closer together causing you to exert more energy.

This test not only tests the physical limitations it is a test to see how far you are willing to go, testing your mental toughness. Within this test, you are pushing yourself time after time again trying to make it before the beep. Once you miss two beeps you are out and the last level you completed is your score. This test is used by the U.S. National Team and colleges all around the country.

10/20s

10/20s is a test that lasts just ten minutes. In this test, you start at one end of the field and run to the opposite end ten times. Have a timer with you or someone timing you so you can see if you are making the time restriction. The test starts on the first sprint where you must make it from one end to the other in twenty seconds. Once you make it to the opposite side you have forty seconds to get back to where you started. This process is just ten sprints which may not seem difficult but once you reach your fifth or sixth sprint the lungs start to burn. It is at this moment where you are getting tired and you need to push through and keep going. This test is good to do with a teammate, pushing each other to your very best.

**Always have water on you when performing these tests and stretch before and after.

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